Sight impairment at age eleven: secondary analysis of the Millennium Cohort Survey. Experiences of school and learning
1. Introduction
The Millennium Cohort Survey (MCS) is a longitudinal survey of 19,000 children born in 2000. It covers a variety of topics including the children's health, wellbeing, behaviour, education and social experiences. In 2014 RNIB in partnership with the Royal London Society for the Blind (RLSB) commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to carry out statistical analysis of the MCS with the aim of identifying children at the age of eleven with a sight impairment and comparing their experiences with those of the other children in the survey who did not have a sight impairment. This follows an analysis of the MCS carried out in 2012 by NatCen for RNIB and RLSB to compare the experiences of children with a sight impairment at the age of seven with other children. Questions were asked of the children, their parents and teachers.
2. Method
Children with children with sight impairment were selected on the basis of information provided by parents and teachers, including questions such as whether the child had been registered as blind/severely sight impaired or partially sighted/sight impaired, and/or the extent to which sight problems affected them at home or at school.
Because other research has identified differences in outcomes for children whose sight impairment is their only special educational need and/or disability (SEND) compared to children with a sight impairment and an additional SEND, the analysis looked at 3 groups of children with sight impairment:
· Sight impairment only
· Sight impairment plus an additional SEND
· All children with sight impairment (i.e. both groups combined)
Out of approximately 12,000 children aged eleven, 233 were identified as having a sight impairment. Just over half (133) had another SEND in addition to their sight impairment. Overall, 51 per cent were, according to their parents, registered as blind or partially sighed.
3. Key findings from the research
3.1 Finding 1: Effect of having an additional impairment
There were clear differences between children with a sight impairment (with or without an additional SEND) and children with no sight impairment on a number of variables, indicating different experiences of school and different levels of attainment between these two groups. A notable finding however, was that for children with sight impairment and another SEND the differences were often greater and applied to a greater number of variables.
3.2 Finding 2: Social and financial inclusion
Social and financial disadvantage is frequently associated with poor educational outcomes. We know that disabled children are more likely to live in poverty than other children and our findings showed that this is also the case for children with sight impairment. At age 11 children with sight impairment (with or without another SEND) were much more likely than children without sight impairment to live in a family experiencing financial hardship. The proportions of children living in households below the poverty line were:
· 19% of all children
· 27% of all children with sight impairment
· 29% of children with sight impairment as their only SEND
· 25% of children with sight impairment and an additional SEND
3.3 Finding 3: Enjoyment of school
Child's perspective: the majority of children with sight impairment were happy with their school and said they liked school. However, while children with sight impairment only (93%) were just as likely as other children (95%) to like school, fewer children with sight impairment and an additional SEND (85%) liked school when compared with all children.
Children with sight impairment and an additional SEND were also more likely than other children to say they were unhappy at school, and less likely to be happy with their school work:
· 20% of children with sight impairment and an additional SEND said they were unhappy at school ‘all or most of the time’ compared to 8% of children with sight impairment as their only SEND and 9% of all children
· 58% of children with sight impairment and an additional SEND were happy with their school work compared to 80% with sight impairment only and 77% of all children.
3.4 Finding 4: Feeling tired at school
Child's perspective: Children with sight impairment were more likely than other children to feel tired at school. A third (33%) of all children with sight impairment were tired at school ‘all or most of the time’ compared to one in five (20%) of all children.
3.5 Finding 5: Comparison with others
Child's perspective: Children with sight impairment (with or without an additional SEND) were less likely than other children to feel that they could do things as well as most other people. The percentages who considered that they could do things as well as most other people were:
· 91% of all children
· 78% of all children with sight impairment
· 83% of children with sight impairment as their only SEND
· 75% of children with sight impairment and another SEND:
3.6 Finding 6: English
Child's perspective: the majority of children liked English and felt they were good at it, and there were no differences between children with sight impairment (with or without an additional SEND) and all other children.
Teacher's perspective: looking first at all children with sight impairment (with and without additional SEND) teachers were less likely to rate their performance in English as above average, and more likely to rate it as below average.
However, when the sight impaired children were divided into two groups: those with and those without an additional SEND the picture was very different.
Children with sight impairment and additional SEND were less likely to be rated as above average and more likely to be rated as below average in English than children with sight impairment only and children without sight impairment. The ratings for the different groups were:
Above/well above average Below/well below average
No sight impairment: 49% 17%
All children with sight impairment: 18% 48%
Sight impairment only: 43% 2%
Sight & another impairment: 8% 67%
3.7 Finding 7: Mathematics
Child’s perspective: while the majority of children liked Maths and thought they were good at Maths, children with sight impairment and an additional SEND were less likely than children with sight impairment only and all other children to do so.
Teacher's perspective: looking first at all children with sight impairment (with and without additional SEND) teachers were less likely to rate their performance in Maths as above average, and more likely to rate it as below average.
However, when the sight impaired children were divided into two groups: those with and those without an additional SEND the picture was very different.
Children with sight impairment and additional SEND were less likely to be rated as above average and more likely to be rated as below average in Maths than children with sight impairment only and children without sight impairment. The ratings for the different groups were:
Above/well above average Below/well below average
No sight impairment: 51% 15%
All children with sight impairment: 25% 42%
Sight impairment only: 51% 12%
Sight & another impairment: 13% 56%
3.8 Finding 8: Science
Child's perspective: the majority of children liked Science and felt they were good at it, and there were no differences between children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) and all other children
Teacher's perspective: looking first at all children with sight impairment (with and without additional SEND) teachers were less likely to rate their performance in Science as above average, and more likely to rate it as below average.
However, when the sight impaired children were divided into two groups: those with and those without an additional SEND the picture was very different.
Children with sight impairment and additional SEND were less likely to be rated as above average and more likely to be rated as below average in Science than children with sight impairment only and children without sight impairment. The ratings for the different groups were:
Above/well above average Below/well below average
No sight impairment: 48% 10%
All children with sight impairment: 22% 34%
Sight impairment only: 38% 7%
Sight & another impairment: 16% 45%
3.9 Finding 9: Able to work independently
Teacher's perspective: children with sight impairment and additional SEND were less likely to work independently than children with sight impairment only and children without sight impairment.
3.10 Finding 10: Bullying
Child's perspective: children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) were no more likely than other children to say they were hurt or picked on by other children. In fact, well over half of all children (59%) said they were ever hurt or picked on by other children (for children with sight impairment and additional SEND, 69% said this was the case).
Parent's perspective: parents of children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) were more likely than other parents to say their child was bullied or picked on by other children. Parents of children with sight impairment only (46%) were almost twice as likely as parents of children without sight impairment (24%) to say their child was bullied or picked on by other children. 39% of parents of children with sight impairment and additional SEND said this was the case.
Teacher's perspective: according to their teachers children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) were more likely than children without sight impairment to have been bullied or picked on by other children in the past six months. Just under a quarter of teachers of children with sight impairment said this was the case compared to one in ten teachers of children without sight impairment.
3.10 Finding 10: Transition to secondary school
Child's perspective: just over half of children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) said they were looking forward to going to secondary school ‘a lot’, and they were just as likely as other children to say so.
Parent's perspective: parents of children with sight impairment and additional SEND (18%) were twice as likely as parents of children with sight impairment only (9%) and children without sight impairment (8%) to say their child wasn’t looking forward to going to secondary school. They were over three times as likely to say their children would find it ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ difficult at secondary school: 39% of parents of children with sight impairment and additional SEND said this compared to 11% of parents of children with sight impairment only, and parents of children without sight impairment.
Teacher's perspective: nearly a third (32%) of teachers of children with sight impairment and additional SEND said the child was not prepared for secondary school compared to 14% of teachers of children with sight impairment only and 9% of teachers of children without sight impairment.
3.11 Aspirations for the future
Child's perspective: children with sight impairment and additional SEND (44%) were less likely than children with sight impairment only (63%) and children without sight impairment (56%) to say they would like to continue in full-time education after the age of 16.
Parent's perspective: the majority of parents said they would like their child to continue in full-time education after the age of 16 and there was no difference between parents of children with sight impairment (with or without additional SEND) and other parents. However, parents of children with sight impairment and additional SEND (45%) were far less likely to consider it likely their child would attend university than parents of children with sight impairment only (79%) and parents of children without sight impairment (77%).
Teacher's perspective: teachers were less likely to think it likely that children with sight impairment and additional SEND would continue in full-time education after the age of 16 (62%) or to go to university (37%) compared to children with sight impairment only (80% and 74%) and children with no sight impairment (85% and 70%).
4. Conclusion
As we had found with the seven year old children, at the age of eleven, there were clear differences between children with and without sight impairment on several school related variables. For example, children with sight impairment were more likely than other children to feel tired at school and were less likely than other children to feel that they could do things as well as most other people.
Responses from parents and teachers suggested that children with sight impairment were more likely than other children to be bullied or picked on by other children. While the children’s responses suggested that children with sight impairment were no more likely than other children to be bullied, it is important to note that over one in two of all children had experienced bullying.
A notable finding, which had also been apparent in the seven-year old children, was the effect of having an additional SEND. On a number of variables the differences between children with sight impairment and other children were no longer evident when the effect of having another SEND was taken into account. For example, when treated as a single group children with sight impairment were more likely to be rated by their teachers as below average at core curriculum subjects and less likely to be above average. However, when treated as two separate groups, children with sight impairment as their only SEND performed no differently to other children, while children with sight impairment and additional SEND did significantly less well than their peers. Children with sight impairment and another SEND were also more likely to be unhappy at school, and less likely to be happy with their school work and to want to continue in full-time education after the age of 16.
While the presence or absence of additional needs is clearly important for children with sight impairment, this is clearly not the only factor influencing their experiences of school and educational outcomes. Further analysis of the data could help give us a better understanding of the role played by factors such as severity of sight impairment, gender, and social and economic disadvantage.
It is also important to remember that while we have concentrated on the differences between children with sight impairment and their peers, the majority (with and without additional SEND) were happy with and liked their school and liked the core curriculum subjects and considered they were good at them.